


Forbidden Knowledge

by Hino



Category: Half-Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:47:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24572533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hino/pseuds/Hino
Summary: Benry is an anomaly, and Coomer knows but cannot tell.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90





	Forbidden Knowledge

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Scopaesthesia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24557368) by [derwentian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/derwentian/pseuds/derwentian). 



Benry is an anomaly, and Coomer knows but cannot tell.

It's hard-coded into him, put there by Benry himself. Coomer can wax poetic all he likes and cite Wikipedia articles until the game's memory overflows and causes a crash, but he cannot utter a single word about Benry's abnormality.

He's seen it in action, when Gordon and the others aren't looking. Benry's shadow stretches further than it should, in shapes that aren't in the game files that Coomer can find. Sometimes his model seems to shine with a strange unearthly light, and more than once Coomer has seen Benry bent and twisted in a way that is impossible, even with their ragdoll physics.

When they all settle down to sleep, he's caught Benry skulking away to the halls. Sometimes he hears the man in the vents. There's the gentle thump of him moving and then a sound of something screeching in pain, followed by a crunching that makes Coomer's skin crawl.

Benry always returns covered in gore and viscera; none of it his own. It's not out of place considering how bloody they all get, but Coomer has seen feathers stuck around the guard's mouth, or a rat's whisker. Benry just looks at him and smiles, showing teeth that are sharp like knives one moment and blunt like human teeth the next.

And of course he tries to tell someone, but as soon as Benry goes back to being relatively normal, the thought slips from his consciousness like water off a duck's back. Only when Benry does something even slightly wrong does the wave of information come back, like a value being set from 0 to 1. If BenryStrange >= .5 then CoomersKnowledge = true, else = false.

But Benry set these parameters. He set the guidelines. He knows when to change the variables, give Coomer the information and take it away. Benry has planned this, and he will make sure it's executed the way he wants it to be.

Gordon thinks Benry is annoying. Tommy thinks he's someone to be respected. Bubby thinks he's got the mind for leadership.

Coomer thinks he's terrifying.


End file.
